Lotus in racing last weekend, 7 - 8 July 2012

Formula One: British Grand Prix

Lotus showed strong pace once again during the
team’s home race at Silverstone, but
difficulties on Saturday ultimately kept them
off the podium.

While the sun came out on Sunday, Friday and
Saturday’s running was wet and slippery. During
qualifying, Romain Grosjean set the fifth
fastest Q2 time but then beached his Lotus E20
in the gravel, meaning he was unable to compete
in Q3. He started the grand prix ninth,
benefiting from Nico Hulkenberg’s five place
gearbox-change penalty. Kimi was able to run in
Q3 despite having no KERS for the entire
qualifying session. He finished up P6, which was
impressive given the advantage a horsepower
boost has around the very fast Northamptonshire
track.

At the start Kimi made an aggressive move down
the outside of Sebastian Vettel at Turn 4 but
launched himself across the inside kerb in order
to avoid Felipe Massa’s Ferrari. Romain was
forced to make an early pitstop on Lap 2 after
he hit Paul di Resta’s Force India at the start
and suffered a broken front wing. The damage and
the subsequent nose-change sunk him to 20th
place, from where he fought through the field.
Kimi came in on Lap 13 and emerged one place
ahead of Grosjean in P7. With the soft tyres out
of the way, both Lotus drivers did their second
and third stints on the superior hard compound.

The pair then set about dispatching the cars in
front of them, Kimi passing Michael Schumacher
and Romain pulling off some thrilling moves on
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. In the final
laps, Kimi was pushing Felipe Massa for fourth
but was unable to improve, while Romain followed
in sixth seven seconds behind his team-mate.

Lotus remains third in the Constructors
Championship with 144 points. Ferrari improves
and is now second to Red Bull with 152 points,
while McLaren slips to fourth two points behind
Lotus. Kimi moves up to fifth place in the
Drivers’ Championship with 83, while Romain
retains seventh on 61 points.

Kimi Raikkonen: “"I had a pretty okay first few
corners but I had to avoid the cars in front and
drove over the kerb on the inside of the turn,
then I lost a place and was pushed wide. If I
had stayed in front of Mark [Webber] at the
start it would have been pretty good seeing
where he finished, but after that Lewis
[Hamilton] also got past me. I fought back and
our car was strong, especially on the harder
tyres. If I’d had a better start I could have
finished much better; but that’s racing and
sometimes you pay a bigger price than you expect
from the first lap.”

Romain Grosjean: “There was a little bit of
confusion at Turns 3 and 4, and I was on the
outside at Turn 3. The Force India came from the
inside and just touched my front wing with his
rear wheel. It was a shame but there's nothing
you can really do in these situations. I think
the best thing is to qualify on pole or second
place and then it's easier in the first corners.
The result itself is not fantastic, but the way
the race went, from 22nd to sixth is very good.
To come in the points after a change of nose is
quite unbelievable, but the team did a great job
to give me a car, which was fantastic. The
strategy with only one stop in the middle was
quite risky, but it worked well, and there were
some good battles on track with Jenson Button,
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. It was very
enjoyable.”

GP2 – Silverstone

Lotus’s Esteban Gutierrez took his second
feature race win on the bounce at Silverstone,
promoting himself to third in the drivers’
standings.

With Stefano Coletti demoted on the grid for
failing to provide a fuel sample, Gutierrez and
team-mate James Calado started fourth and fifth
on the grid. The wet conditions were extreme,
and the decision was taken to drive the first
seven laps behind the safety car. Once the race
got underway, Esteban held his position.
Pole-sitter Fabio Leimer was able to pull away
while the following cars dealt with poor
visibility. Esteban was brought into the pits
for an early stop, and he used this to great
effect, undercutting both third-placed Jolyon
Palmer and second-place Johnny Cecotto Jr.

Then Calado, stopped out on track signaling the
safety car’s reappearance. A gearbox electrics
issue rid the Englishman of a strong result at
home. He had been running fifth at that point.
Leimer had yet to take his mandatory stop as he
was led by the safety car, the field bunching up
behind him and his nine second lead wiped out.
When the race got underway again, Esteban kept
his cool knowing that the lead was his to
inherit. A crash from Coletti sparked another
safety car, and any hope Leimer had of creating
another gap was gone. He was forced to pit and
slid to 15th. Esteban pushed hard at the restart
to build a comfortable lead over Cecotto,
winning the race by 1.7 seconds and posting the
fastest lap on the run to the chequered flag.

The Mexican put in another strong performance in
Sunday’s sprint race to finish fourth, having
started P8 on the reverse grid. Fabrizio
Crestani passed him at the start, but once he
was comfortable with the dry but slippery
conditions and got a rhythm Esteban ate his way
back into point-scoring positions. Having
dispensed with Crestani the 20-year-old set his
sights on Max Chilton for P7, then Nigel Melker
for P6 while defending from a resurgent Jolyon
Palmer. He did so successfully and nailed
Melker, snatching fifth place from Guido van der
Garde who killed his tyres early. At this point
Esteban’s pace made him a podium threat. He was
all over fourth-placed Cecotto like a cheap suit
but struggled to find a way past the Venezuelan.
Two laps to go he did it, and then found himself
riding Felipe Nasr’s gearbox and staring at a
podium. He made the move but locked up his
wheels, and Cecotto seized the opportunity to
retake fourth. Screaming down to Stowe corner on
the last lap Esteban made a do-or-die move
around the outside. Cecotto drifted wide
touching Esteban and forcing him off the track.
The Lotus driver returned to the track but with
wet slick tyres lost control and banged into
Cecotto. Cecotto crashed out but Esteban
regained control and, with a flat tyre and
broken front wing, crossed the finish line in
fourth place, earning eight points.

Calado crashed out on Lap 19 from tenth place as
he desperately tried to fight his way from the
back into the point-scoring Top 8. He took out
Max Chilton, which has earned him a ten-place
penalty for Hockenheim

Gutierrez, too, was handed a penalty. The
stewards, having investigated the last lap
incident, announced that Esteban will get the
same penalty as Calado. His points from
Silverstone are unaffected.

Having begun the weekend sixth in the
championship, Esteban’s 35 points have elevated
him to sixth and he now sits on 122, stretching
the gap between him and Calado to 27 points.
Luiz Razia, who won Sunday’s sprint race, now
leads with 165. Lotus leads the teams
championship from DAMS with a total of 217
points to 205.

Esteban Gutierrez: “I’m very happy with this
weekend, it feels terrific to win two weekends
in a row. Thirty-five points is fantastic and
I’m pleased to leave Silverstone third in the
championship. July is an important month, with
three races, and my aim is to score big points
in each and close the gap to Luiz [Razia] and
Davide [Valsecchi]. With the penalty in
Hockenheim it will make things more difficult,
that’s for sure, but we have to accept the
stewards’ decision.”

James Calado: “Qualifying was quite wet, and my
first time at Silverstone in the wet so to be
fifth was reasonable. I was following Esteban
for the majority of Race 1, until he went into
the pits. I pushed really hard, got a good stop,
but when I can out there was a big red ‘F’ on
the dash and everything stopped. It was an
electric failure than caused the gearbox to
completely shut down. By retiring I had to start
Race 2 last. The pace was really good, I was
overtaking pretty much every lap. Two laps from
the end I made a move on [Max] Chilton at
Becketts, we touched and crashed. I had nothing
to lose, I had to try and score a point. The
potential was there for podiums this weekend, so
it’s just unlucky.”

GP3 – Silverstone

Lotus GP took two podium places at Silverstone,
with Aaro Vainio taking third on Saturday and
Conor Daly second on Sunday.

Vainio qualified second for Race 1, with
team-mates Daly 5th and Daniel Abt sixth.
However, Daly receieved a 10 place grid penalty
for an incident in Valencia. At the start,
Vainio was passed by Antonio Felix da Costa who
went on to win, and Abt made up a place to run
fourth. Daly was on an absolute charge passing
on every one of the opening seven laps of the 14
lap race and finishing fifth.

On Sunday, on a treacherously slippery track,
Daly was to prove his overtaking prowess once
again. Starting on slick tyres saw this
Irish-American fall back through the field from
P4 to P19. But then the brave slick runners came
to the fore and he followed Will Buller, who
started on slicks at the back, across the finish
line to take second. Vainio struck the back of
Arden’s Mathias Laine at Vale and crashed out,
earning a ten place grid penalty for Hockenheim
in the process. Abt spun off across the grass on
his own accord and was then clouted by Marlon
Stockinger’s Status car for good measure.

Vainio remains second in the drivers’
championship while Lotus GP is one point shy of
MW Arden in the teams standings.

Conor Daly: “Honestly I was really unhappy with
the decision to go on slicks. When you are at
the front you want to go with the majority of
what everyone else is doing. I should never have
doubted the Lotus guys, though. It’s great to be
driving for a team like that. Once it started
drying out it was fantastic. I didn’t even know
where I was at the finish, I thought I was
fourth or fifth but it turns out I was second!”

Aaro Vainio: “I always liked these conditions,
coming from Finland I think it’s quite normal! I
pushed really hard even though I knew is would
be difficult on the tyres but I tried my best.
Antonio [Felix da Costa] was able to pass me [in
Race 1] and I was lucky to keep [Mathias] Laine
and [Daniel] Abt behind me. Obviously then
Antonio and Mitch [Evans] were able to pull away.
I’m a bit disappointed with the result because I
know the pace is there.”

IndyCar: Toronto

Lotus brought an upgraded engine to Canada for
Simona de Silvestro, which brought the driver
much encouragement but ultimately her weekend
was ruined by a rolling tyre and mechanical
gremlins.

Having qualified a lowly 21st due to a tyre
pressure problem, Simona crashed out of Sunday
morning’s warm up session when she hit a rolling
tyre. Sebastien Bourdais had clipped the tyre
barrier at Turn 1, setting it loose, and it sent
Simona’s Lotus HVM flying into the outside wall.
There was damage to the whole left side of the
car, the left suspension, the front wing, the
floor. The Lotus HVM Racing team rushed back to
the garage, and worked nonstop to get the car
fixed up and ready in time for the race.

Unfortunately, De Silvestro’s race ended after
only eight laps. She was heard on the radio
saying: “The engine’s not pulling. I have no
power.” She made it to the pits, and got out of
the car. The crew took the car back to the
garage, hoping to find the problem, fix it, and
send Simona back out. However, on Lap nine, the
#78 Lotus car was retired from the race for
mechanical reasons. Simona finished in 24th
position, ahead of Scott Dixon.

Simona de Silvestro: “I’m pretty disappointed.
Something happened with the engine. We were
hoping for a good finish, trying to stay out of
trouble. It’s hard to say right now, we just did
a couple of laps. We’ll have to see what
happened and go to Edmonton and try to do better.”

Vincent Pereme, Motorsport Engine Manager, Lotus
Racing: “The accident this morning had nothing
to do with this afternoon’s engine failure
during the race. It is clear it was engine
failure as you could hear it when the car was on
track. The first analysis on the data seems to
show that the engine failure was not related to
the new engine spec. It might be an unfortunate
reliability issue, which has never happened
before. We will send the engine back to England
tomorrow morning to be able to analyze it better
at the workshop, and have it ready for the next
race, in Edmonton.”

American Le Mans Series – Northeast Grand
Prix

Lotus Alex Job Racing finished tenth at Lime
Rock at the weekend. The team is developing its
Lotus Evora GT and managed to get a lot of miles
under their belts during the two month ALMS
break, and a top ten GT class finish is a steady
step in the right direction.

Townsend Bell qualified the Evora 23rd
overall and tenth in class, and handed the car
to team-mate Bill Sweedler for the start. Racing
in his home state of Connecticut, Sweedler is
something of a local hero. Unfortunately, he was
pushed off, costing the team positions, but he
managed to get it back on track without damage.
Bell took over on Lap 88 and showed very
consistent pace to help return the car to where
it started, tenth in this highly competitive
class and 18th overall.

Bill Sweedler: “Our goal today was run hard all
race, and we did. We are developing the car and
we are showing a lot of promise. Townsend and I
were really close in speed. Townsend was a bit
quicker, but we had a good day with the Lotus.
It was unfortunate, I got pushed off the track
by one of the Ferrari's on the downhill and cost
me a few laps, but the car was fine, and we kept
it going. We had good pace, diced with some RSRs
and passed a few competitors. It was a good day
for our development program.”

Townsend Bell: “I am really proud of this team.
We ran pretty strong all weekend. The team has
worked really hard on the development of the car
since Laguna Seca, and it is paying off. We have
come, literally thousands of miles development
wise. The guys have put in a lot of hours on the
car. The car ran flawlessly. We are starting to
close on the competition.”

Claudio Berro, Director of Lotus Racing: “A
challenging weekend for Lotus at the British
Grand Prix, our home race, but some very
valuable points in the end which sees the team
move ahead of McLaren in the world championship.
Congratulations to Esteban Gutierrez on a great
win at Silverstone, his second feature race win
in a row and now a contender for the GP2 drivers’
championship. Well done too to Aaro Vainio and
Conor Daly on their podiums in GP3. More
frustration in IndyCar but we’ll keep pushing.”